ad fallen and the wide suburban street was almost dark, except when
moment, and she was amused to see that he failed to identify the uniformed nurse with the girl in her tr
e turned and walked besid
t. But it's just as short
and qu
r long steps falling naturally into time, thoug
w nothing about the relation between
l was endowed by one o
hat between them--all kinds of subterranean passages." He paused, and began
ief at t
--thinks one of the mill-hands is only slightly injured, it's natural that
I don't
ural that a man should be
rofessional hono
that, Truscomb being high in favour with the Westmores, and the Westmores having a lien on the hospital
sed abruptly on th
want me to think well o
ents. She was, in fact, as he now noticed, still young enough to dislike being excused for her youth. In her severe uniform of blue linen, her dusky skin darkened by the nurse's cap, and by the pale b
cknowledged. "But let me put Dil
ause of my interest in that p
e needs help--and th
"Please tell me about him f
other question. "I wonder how m
t I've managed to pick up in t
under its dark roll of hair, and said, ha
pped suddenly, and he put his hand behind him to get a tool he needed out of his trouser-pocket. He reached back a little too far, and the card behind him caught his hand in its million of diamond-pointed wires. Truscomb and the ove
eager breath. "And
g a bobbin-boy--and he hadn't yet learned how cautious a man must be in there. The cards are so close to each other that even the old hands
y crowd the roo
of floor-space. It costs more to increase the flo
o on," sh
that Dillon's hand would certainly be saved, and that he might get back to work in a
ndignation. "Mr. Amherst--who gave you
nager h
rba
ed me Disbro
et; then she said, in a voice still stirred with feeling: "As I to
Mrs.
ng to a death that very morning in the surgical ward, we happened to have a bed ready for the poor man within three hours of the acc
ughter: she joined in it, and for a moment they were blent in t
hours' delay didn't help matters--how is it
er question, which we haven't time for now." He waited a moment, and th
and probably the whole arm." She spoke with a thrilling of her slight frame that
her. "Good God! Never any
ver
e won'
la
ren. She ruined her health swallowing cott
old me ye
rise. "You've had
." Miss Brent paused to steady her voice. "It's the curse of my trade that it's always tempting me to interfere in cases where I can do no possible g
she had regained her composure. Then h
--and I am not unused to slums. It looks so dead
oment she asked: "Does the cotto
ourse the harm could be immensely reduced by taking up the old rough fl
such cases? Where an operativ
there was a phth
ing in return for the tw
care at the hospital, and they have
leanable floors? Sh
bending over the looms or cards. The pay is lower, of course, but she's very grat
"She can't possibly stand more than two or
that in less than that time he
them when the wife is a hopeless i
hospital. "I know what I should do if I could get anywhere near Dillon--give him an ove
curiously. "Shou
s I know them, I believe I should feel justified--" He broke off. "
haps the professional instinct
hen all the good
ould do it himself if he could--when he
y of such cases that his employers, after ruining h
t ought to count
ore to the charge of uncharitableness; and suddenly she exclaimed, lookin
rd. Here the spacious houses, withdrawn behind shrubberies and lawns, revealed in their silhouettes every form of architectural experiment, from t
have_ gone a block or two out of our way. I always forget wh
don't dine till seven, and I can get home in
can take a Liberty Street car instead. They ru
he continued: "I haven't yet explained why I am so a
t you've told me about Dr. Disbrow
ofessional etiquette, or asked you to do so, if I hadn't a hope of bettering things; but I have, and t
that," she
d last winter," he went on, "and my hope--it's no mo
the ne
, and she is coming here to-morrow to
doesn't liv
loyer to live near the employed. The Westmores have always lived
ght to be a good sign. Did she never show any i
en there in my time. She is very young, and Westmore himself didn't care. It wa
nies--but I suppose Mrs. Westmore doesn't unite all the offices in her o
can see by the names that it's all in the family. Halford Gaines married a Miss Westmore, and represents the clan at Hanaford--leads society, and keeps up the social credit of the name. As treasurer, Mr. Halford Gaines kept strictly to his special
es? Is there no hope of his breaki
ct in life is to be taken for a New Yorker. So far he hasn't been here much, except for the quarterly me
loped her interest in social problems, an
rhaps Mrs. Westmore's coming will make a chan
her husband was really the whole company. The o
knows but poor Dillon's case may help others--prov
abuses I want to have remedied. The difficulty will be to get
that only two short flights of steps intervened between the gate-posts and the portico. Light shone from every window of the pompous rusticated fa?ade--in the turreted "Tuscan
ted of two men, one slightly lame, with a long white moustache and a distinguished nos
e younger of the two ladies, turning back to her maid, exposed to the glare of th
d: "I suppose so; I've never seen her----" she continued excitedly: "
rt of remembrance. "I don't know--I must have
answered, as though touched on a sore point: "I mean people
ay be going to count," sh
of the red-carpeted Westmore hall on which the glass doors were just being closed.
th me. But isn't this my corner?" she exclaimed, as they turn
ked interior her companion, as his habit was, stood for a while where she had left him, gazing at some indefinite poi
and drew out a pocket Shakespeare. He read on, indifferent to his surroundings, till the car left the asphalt streets and illumin
iver-bend, and the sudden neatness of the manager's turf and privet hedges. The scene was so familiar to Amherst that he had lost the habit of comparison, and his absorption in the moral and material needs of the workers sometimes made him forget the outward setting of their lives. But to-night he recalled the nurse's comment--"it looks so dead"--and the phrase roused him to a fresh perception of the scene. With sudden disgust he saw the sordidness of it all--the poor monotonous houses, the trampled grass-banks, the lean dogs prowling in refuse-heaps, the reflection of a crooked gas-
ad--stone dead: there isn't a dro
carved. The pillared "residences" had, after this, inevitably fallen to base uses; but the old house at Hopewood, in its wooded grounds, remained, neglected but intact, beyond the first bend of the river, deserted as a dwelling but "held" in anticipation of rising values, when the inevitable growth of Westmore should increase the demand for small building lots. Whenever Amherst's eyes were refreshed by the hanging foliage above the roofs of Westmore, he longed to convert the abandoned country-seat into a park and playground for th
and egotism, how can one be pulled out without making the whole thing topple? And whatev
ed cottages. Approaching one of these by a gravelled path he pushed open the door, and entered a s
down the evening paper as she rose,
he said, stoop
iled back at him, not repro
d the fine lines that experience had drawn about her mouth and eyes. The eyes themselves, brightly black and glancing, had none of the veiled depths of her s
plain will be later still. I had to go into H
n have a minute to ourselves. Si
had not seen those small hands in motion--shaping garments, darning rents, repairing furniture, exploring the inner economy of clocks. "I make a sort of r
chair. "I was trying to find out so
nce toward the door, rose to
el
with his nurse when she we
nder you could g
happened to be here on a visit. As it was, I had some diffic
ight glance from the needl
essly
own her eyes. "Do you s
as quite comp
ay, here on a visit
a vague look. "I never
w like you! Did she say w
ak Street--but she did
if she's not the thin dark girl I saw the other day wi
particular, and following some irrelevant thread of association in utter disregard of the main issue. But to-night, preoccupied with his s
for one of the infant Dillons. "She takes her pity out in action, like that quiet nurse, who was as cool as a drum-major till she took off her uniform--and then!" His face softened at the recollection
his chair. She leaned on it a moment, pushi
onsidered what yo
his head to
ontinued. "How are all these in
moment; then he said coldly: "You ar
mured: "It's not the kind of pl
k. "I ought to have followed a profession, like my grandfather; but my father's blood
genius for mechanics, and if he had lived he would hav
hem. I wish I had inherited more from him, or less; but I must make the best of what I am, rather than try to be so
you've chosen your work, it's natural
esture. "Never fear; I coul
ou? Do you forget that Scotch ove
emember him," said Amherst grimly; "but I have a
with relief. "There's Duplain," he said, going into the passage; but on the threshold he encountered, not the young Alsa
ing? To th
's sick
press his lips close to check an exclamation. "S
and I saw Mrs. Westmore arriving tonight! Have supper, mother--we won't wait for Duplain." His fac
herst sighed, crossing th